Three Blue Ducks shows NSW is all it’s quacked up to be
In this show, three raffish blokes set out on Australian road trips to forage, fish, farm and dive for the finest produce.
THREE BLUE DUCKS
7pm Saturdays, Channel 10; streaming on 10 play
Three raffish blokes set out on road trips to forage, fish, farm and dive for the finest produce in the fairest of lands in this cooking show that is as much about splendid scenery and salt-of-the-earth growers as it is about plating up.
The winning ingredient is that these amigos — all casual in T-shirts, shorts and caps — have impressive kitchen pedigrees. Andy Allen is a MasterChef Australia winner and judge, Mark LaBrooy served his apprenticeship at Tetsuya’s fabled Sydney restaurant, where Brit-born and trained Darren Robertson was chef; together they spearhead the Three Blue Ducks restaurant operation, which started in an old chicken shop in Bronte, Sydney, and now has premises in suburban Rosebery, Byron Bay, Brisbane and Nimbo Fork, near Tumut in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.
In the six-part series, our chefs travel to NSW foodie hotspots to source produce for succulent new dishes they serve up first for the locals and then refine for one of their restaurants. The verdict on whether the creation will find a permanent home on the menu rests with diners.
It’s off to Port Stephens (Andy’s home town north of Newcastle) to catch eastern rock lobsters and then over to ever-so-green Gloucester to source ethically farmed Black Angus beef. The dish in mind is a modern take on the crowd pleaser of an earlier generation, surf ’n’ turf. Next up, the rolling sheep country around Tullamore in the central west; diving for abalone at Eden on the southern Sapphire Coast (for a twist on carbonara); a Vietnamese marketplace in Cabramatta; and fly fishing in Tumut. As someone fortunate to have dined at Nimbo Fork Lodge, ordering the trout was a given — and once given, never forgotten.